On my way

I love waking up in the morning and only asking myself one question, what will make me happy today?

And for the first week of semester break, I have been smiling a lot, mostly internally, and feeling lighter than I have for a long time. Granted, my requests always revolve around the same things: books, writing, baking new recipes I found through StumbleUpon, scrapbooking, and dancing alone to my favourite songs (only my Sluts will get to see this). But they say so much. In some way or another, they tell me who I am; they tell me about me.

We always ask ourselves, what we truly love doing, and are passionate about. And by doing what I do the moment I wake up, you might find yourself getting more answers than you look for consciously, and at times, desperately. Do not ask what you want to do, because that may somehow unconsciously gravitate your mind towards your to-do list and what you NEED to do, rather than WANT. No, ask yourself, what will make me happy now?

And in some weird way, you will feel more productive at the end of the day than if you force yourself to do something the end product of which you deem productive. Should you feel you had indeed wasted time (what a workaholic dweeb you are!), remember the wise words of John Lennon: Time you enjoy wasting, was not wasted.

Give it a go. Be happy. Who says life should be bleak and depressing anyway? Neither should it be fill with anger and vengeance but THAT is another story, which depends on the status and mental stability of the idiot who provoked you.

Baking and scrapbooking for me tomorrow (:

Inevitable

Some things just don't change, do they?
Fifteen years on and I still treat playing the piano the way I did when I was six; a bloody chore.
All the frustration and hate for my incompetence simply because I was afraid of being laughed at if I chose writing as a Degree course.
How deflating.
Counting down the months....

Turn my mic up louder, I got to say somethin'

The haze of controversy shrouding the demand of banning Harry Potter books smells foul. Surely burning an entire forest of children fantasy on religious basis is downright outrageous and health hazardous?

I find Rob Boston’s stand in stamping the Harry Potter series as dangerous as they teach children occult, Wicca witchcraft, dark arts, Satanism and so forth, shaky, and my opposition team’s argument that the books invoke rebellion, vengeance, ‘dark’ traits and inappropriate behaviors, is somewhat shallow as both only explore the literal and surface context.

So it is written that the books expose children to a fantasy world that does not exist, inhabited by people doing things that defy the laws of nature and inhabited by creatures that only live in one’s imagination, thus the readers will be influenced into believing everything on the pages and will soon not be able to differentiate between virtual and reality. But, if we were to be theoretical about it, Lawrence Kohlberg’s moral development modal proves that the reader will absorb the deeper lessons of ethics and proper social conduct rather than the superficial ‘hocus pocus’.

He pointed out that the story is relatable to children as the situations that the fictional characters find themselves in, and the dilemmas they face, are similar to the issues children will encounter in the ‘real’ world. And the teachings behind every solution to the problems, despite the ‘magical setting’, can be applied to daily woes, such as the scene where Harry and Ron fought off the troll in the toilet and rescued Hermoine. The troll in this situation serves as a magnified and hyperbolized version of a bully, a more enthralling way to send the message that bullies are not to be tolerated and that there is nothing wrong in fending and protecting your friend from harm.

Kohlberg drew up three levels of moral development, with two stages in each level.  The first is Punishment and Obedience in the primary level of Preconventional. It observes the social background of children regarding their capability to obey rules and to what extend their obedience stretches to avoid punishment. For example, some children are more concerned when Ron breaks a house rule and gets a scolding from his mother, while others may react more to Harry’s punishment from his Muggle uncle of being locked up or physically abused. Depending on the way a child is punished for wrongdoing at home, he or she will react differently to various punishment scenes in the books, and thus learn how the characters deal with the punishment and method of avoiding future occurrence, which they can apply it to their own lives.  

In the second stage Instrumental Exchange, children will behave and act a certain manner that they assume is acceptable so as to obtain a desired result. This is a stage whereby a child will treat his new friends with fairness to sustain a friendship with them, just as Harry does on his first train ride to Hogwarts, when he shares the candies he buys with Ron, a less well-to-do boy. Children will be encouraged to imitate Harry’s generous trait after they experienced the joy and excitement of the two new friends as they tried different sweets, hence instill a sense of togetherness that can spur a child to be big hearted with his friends.   

      

Up a notch, the Conventional level’s Interpersonal Conformity sees children’s understanding of the depth of an action, which affects their motivation of attaining praises, while Social System and Conscience Maintenance discuses the ability to abide by rules to keep social order.  Both stages are effectively depicted by Hermoine in the first book Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. Although she is a strict follower of rules and regulations by nature, Hermoine does so in the first half of the book mainly to earn the professors’ approval and points for her House. As she becomes fast friends with Harry and Ron, her rules-abiding tendency shifts to encompass the well-being of the student body, like how she refuses to enter the room with the three-headed dogs to explore the trapdoor because it is forbidden for good reason.

Moving on, the Post Conventional level consists of Prior Rights and Social Contract. The achievement of this stage is attained by most adults and some adolescents, and it observes the acceptability of breaking of rules should the action serves a higher purpose. One of the striking examples is when Harry, Ron and Hermoine decide to save a Hippogriff from its death sentence. They understand that by doing so, they are risking expulsion and the wrath of the Ministry of Magic, but they also know that if they do not break the rule, an innocent creature will be executed for retaliating an attack by Draco Malfoy.

The last stage Universal Ethical Principles is rare and no one has ever reached this state save perhaps the noblest of people, such as Jesus, Mother Teresa, Gandhi and Martin Luther King.

However, I believe the greatest mental stimulation the author can provide her young readers is the call for inquisitions and debates insinuated within the usage of cognitive moral conflict. The series contains seven books, and by reading them in sequence, children are growing, mentally, emotionally and spiritually, with Harry Potter and his friends at Hogwarts. Even though a 13-year old child may read all the books within a year, by the time he reaches the seventh book, he has already attained the moral development, and perhaps a portion of maturity, of a 17-year old, the age Harry is in that book. Also, through arguments participated by the characters, the reader can learn of others’ reactions, opinions, insights and methods of solving an issue. And it is good to note that the series is written by a matured adult, from whom young readers can absorb wisdom and teachings from one of higher moral development level than them.

Subsequently, the art of role playing ignited by entrancing story of Harry Potter helps children to adopt good moral qualities, ethics, personalities and characters. Rather than Rob Boston’s belief of readers’ mimicking and cultivating practices of occult by role playing Harry, Ron or Hermoine, Lana A. Whited and M. Katherine Grimes argue that the young minds are absorbing the traits and bringing out the best of their favorite fictional characters instead. Should I scrap Harry Potter out of the picture and replace him with Cinderella instead, do you pretend you are a damsel in distress and act out the love story in your role play, or do you catch mice to try to converse with them and attempt to squeeze into a pumpkin?  

Books and words shape us more than we ever care to admit and the idea of children consuming negative influence from them strings the parents tauter than any other fears. And matching the speed of fire catching dry hay, a tiny spark will set the fear ablaze across hundreds of minds, in which case religious belief is the lighter. But this is not a reason to ban a book, partially because doing so means you doubt the strength of your faith against the influence of books, and partially because there is no solid scientific prove that the books have damaging effects on children. And also, it only provokes a child to challenge the forbidden, as you are denying him a world.

Besides, if a child is not to read the Harry Potter series, along with Wizard of Oz, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Great Gatsby and so on, what exactly is he to read? Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? Then tell me what is the difference between swishing wands and a chocolate factory owner who eats children after they turned into pieces of chocolate upon falling into the chocolate pools?

Here comes the sun

"You accuse that print media sentences forests to extinction, I say that visualized media kills your imagination and creativity, electronic gadgets with screens burns your eyes. Ms. Yap hit a brilliant point: with all the movie adaption of novels, how many of us actually bother to read the written version before heading to the cinemas? Or more precisely, when reading a description of a character, do you paint your own illustration of their face, or do you conveniently borrow an actor’s or actress’ because they had once played a role similar to that character?"  -An excerpt from my journal for Introduction to Mass Communication. 

The joy and excitement I find in this class balance the depressing pull of my other subjects. And someone who loves the Mortal Instruments and another who can fluctuate at the same frequency with me on books and movies as classmates? Life is beautiful.

I need a doctor

Books will be the death of me.

I take reading in public to the extreme. If I give in to the temptation, which I always do, my book will wrap its fingers around the hand of my thoughts and lead my body across the road, up and down flights of stairs, along corridors, and through (if I am lucky) open doors. The surroundings will fall away, with my nose shoved between the pages of my book, smelling the sun-baked fields of another world; my mind’s eyes sweeping a foreign landscape; my mouth tweaking in amusement as my ears hear the petty arguments of the characters; my senses are so occupied that they have neither the mood or time for reality.  

Oh yes, books will be the very death of me. 

Love to love you

People meet and people part; sometimes our trains speed along side-by-side for years before our railway tracks diverge; sometimes our encounters are barely a knock between the bumper cars we ride in. Our lives will never ceased crisscrossing others, under and out, up and over, through and through. And at the end of the day, the manner of which is insignificant, because, ultimately, it is the bond during that indiscernible span of collision that matters most.

If I were you, I would duck, or get strike by lightning.

Traffic cones sometimes are just hindering obstacles that disrupt your journey and upset your planned route. At moments like this, you just have to knock those mocking plastic things down and show them who's boss. And that is exactly what I am about to do >:)